The Distance Between Your Mind and Your Heart

 

One of the things I’ve noticed most when talking to people over the years is that many people have a fundamental misunderstanding of salvation. Don’t get me wrong, many people understand how it works: we are sinners, Jesus came and died for our sins, and we put our faith in Him for the forgiveness of those sins. Simple formula, easy to understand. Here’s the issue I’ve noticed, though. For many people, it’s all about understanding and not about the actual commitment and belief. So many people have a disconnect between their head and their heart, and I’m afraid that it could end up costing them their souls.

Don’t get me wrong, we have to intellectually understand the process of salvation. If we didn’t, we couldn’t actually make the conscious decision to put our faith in Christ and follow Him. This is why many people talk about the “age of understanding” when they are talking about children and their choice to pray for salvation. We have to evaluate our intellectual understanding of the gospel in order to have confidence that we truly understand what decision we are making, but that is only a piece of the puzzle. Intellectual understanding isn’t salvific. Take the verse in James 2.19 where he talks about how the demons understand the gospel. He says, “Even the demons believe–and shudder!” (ESV). The demons intellectually understand and believe who Jesus is. They know the gospel as well, if not better than we do. But no one would suggest that the demons will receive salvation. Or take the terrifying passage in Matthew 7.21-23 where Jesus is talking about people who claim that He is Lord, but never knew Him. These are people who even prophesied, cast out demons, and did miracles in the name of Jesus, but they weren’t truly following Him! Isn’t that crazy?! These people knew all the right answers, they even did all the right things, but they were cast out and sent to eternal damnation because they never knew Jesus. It wasn’t that the demons or the people didn’t have the intellectual knowledge of the gospel, it was that they didn’t put their faith in Jesus for salvation and submit their life to following Him.

You see, Jesus’s command wasn’t to study and learn all the right answers. Jesus’s command wasn’t to do all the right things. Jesus’s command was to “follow me.” We are commanded to acknowledge our sinfulness, pray for forgiveness, and submit our lives to Christ, following Him wherever He leads. It may have an element of intellect to it, but our salvation comes from our heart crying out to Jesus for forgiveness and submitting to serve and obey Him. That is how we bridge the gap between our heads and our hearts and truly give our lives to Christ. The end result is our salvation and eternal life with Him in the end. Trust me, it’s worth it. Don’t just give Jesus your head, give Him your heart too.